......If There Is Sufficient Evidence Of Fraud [Or Error] In The Declared Results.

By Otchere Darko

Reference: “Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper Kwesi Pratt says he does not foresee the courts invalidating the December 2012 elections results following claims of fraud by the biggest opposition party.

“He said he is very doubtful that any judge worth his sort will overturn the Electoral Commissioner’s declaration of President John Mahama winner of the polls. ......... .........” [Ghanaweb General News of Saturday, 22 December 2012 that was captioned “I don't see any judge invalidating Election 2012 results”; Source: Joy Online.]


Readers will agree with me that Ghana’s democracy is being put to a full test by the 2012 elections, following the decision of NPP members to challenge the results declared by the Electoral Commission at the Supreme Court. *It is important that this should happen, because it will help to prove to the world that this country has fully matured in democratic governance, if the case truly goes to court and the party that will lose it accepts the Supreme Court decision without dragging the country further down the lane of more protests. I therefore take this opportunity to congratulate the NPP leadership for deciding to use the law courts to challenge the decision of the EC, rather than resort to the usual ‘jungle forms’ of protestation.

Having decided to use the law courts to protest, it is important that the NPP leadership brings its rank and file members and supporters into line with the party’s position, by advising them to desist from doing anything that has the potential to jeopardise any court process and/or endanger the nation’s peace. Firstly, the party leadership should tell its members and supporters to abandon all [lawful] demonstrations they have planned, or may be planning to undertake against the election results. Secondly and crucially, the party leadership should advise NPP members and supporters to desist from all forms of lawlessness. Thirdly, the whole party from the leadership to ordinary members and supporters should embrace themselves for the possibility of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the case going contrary to what they (the party members and supporters) want or hope for. If they truly believe in the court system, then they (the NPP that plan to send the case to court) must be willing to accept a court ruling that goes against them.

Coming to the NDC that has been declared winners of the elections, it is important for that party to understand that article 64 of the 1992 Constitution permits any [aggrieved] citizen of Ghana to challenge the election of the President, if such citizen can “present a petition for the purpose to the Supreme Court within twenty-one days after the declaration of the results of the election in respect of which the petition is presented”. Clause (2) of article 64 makes it further clear that a declaration by the Supreme Court to the effect that the election of the President is not valid “shall be without prejudice to anything done by the President before the declaration”.

It is clear from article 64 that the Supreme Court can overturn the 2012 election results, if they (Supreme Court members deciding any petition presented by NPP or any other citizen of Ghana) come to the conclusion that the election results declared by the Electoral Commission on 9th December were wrong and failed to reflect the true wishes of the electorate. *Mr Kwesi Pratt is therefore very wrong to say that he is “very doubtful that any judge worth his sort will overturn the Electoral Commissioner’s declaration of President John Mahama winner of the polls”. If the evidence that will be presented to the Supreme Court by the NPP is overwhelming, then any judge sitting on the case must overturn the Electoral Commission’s declaration of Mr Mahama as the winner of the polls.

It is both strange and sad that some NDC members, including Kwesi Pratt, have already begun to cast doubt on the ability of the Supreme Court to overturn the results declared by the Electoral Commission, even before they (the NDC members) have had the chance to know the evidence held by NPP. Earlier, too, a member of NDC’s communication directorate, Mr Kakra Essamuah “hinted he will support any coup d’état in the country if Nana Akufo-Addo, presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is declared president by a court of competent jurisdiction” (Ghanaweb General News of Tuesday, 11 December 2012; Source: Joy Online). *If NDC members begin to make statements like the two made by both Kakra Essamuah and Kwesi Pratt, then there is cause for great concern, because one can then conclude that NDC may refuse to accept a ruling of the Supreme Court that sets aside the earlier results declared by the EC on 9th December 2012.

The true test of Ghana’s democracy will certainly come when the Supreme Court decides the impending challenge of the election results by NPP. Will Mahama and the NDC quietly accept a decision of the Supreme Court that reverses the election results declared by the EC on 9th December 2012? Alternatively, will Nana Akufo-Addo and his NPP finally concede defeat in brevity, if any court case brought by them against the declared election results goes against them? NDC claims, by its name (National Democratic Congress).....if not by anything else, that it is “democratic”. NPP, also, boasts all the time that it is the political tradition [in Ghana] that is most rooted in democracy. The time has now come for the two parties to prove their democratic credentials by accepting, without protesting, whatever decision the Supreme Court will take in the impending epic and landmark case that the NPP plans to bring before it, and which will prove where Ghana truly stands on a global scale of democratic maturity.

Source: Otchere Darko.